About Nathan Harmer Associates
Principal Architect. 49 years of senior commercial leadership across FTSE 100 organisations, specialist advisory practice, and mid-market businesses. Nathan Harmer Associates was founded in April 2026 to bring retained, conflict-free commercial strategy to businesses that are ready to grow — and need the right architecture to do it.
Paul Foster has spent nearly five decades doing one thing: helping organisations win more of the business they should be winning. Not as a theorist, not as an interim manager between permanent roles, but as a senior commercial practitioner who has sat at the table where contracts are won and lost, where client relationships are built and defended, and where revenue decisions carry real consequences.
That career spans retail management, major UK corporates, FTSE 100 client environments, and 14 years of specialist advisory practice. The sectors, clients, and contexts have varied considerably. The discipline — understanding what drives commercial growth and building the strategy and relationships to achieve it — has been consistent throughout.
Nathan Harmer Associates was founded in April 2026 as the natural next step: a retained advisory practice in which Paul works with one client per sector, with no conflicts, no commissions, and no delegation. Solely accountable to the businesses he works with.
The following is not a comprehensive employment history. It is a record of the commercial contexts in which Paul has worked and the outcomes those engagements produced.
Eight years managing retail operations at volume and pace. Commercial fundamentals formed here: margin, customer behaviour, buying decisions, team performance under pressure, and the unambiguous accountability of trading results. A grounding that no MBA replaces.
Seven years in print and document management — senior commercial roles developing new business and managing accounts across a sector then undergoing structural change. The foundation of Paul's understanding of complex solution selling, print procurement, and the commercial dynamics of outsourced document services.
Continued development in print and communications. Senior commercial responsibility for new business development and account management during a period of significant consolidation and competitive pressure across the sector.
Joined Waddington Chorleys in a senior commercial role as the business entered a period of growth and structural change, later evolving into Communisis Chorleys as part of the wider Communisis group. Six years building major account relationships and developing the commercial foundations that would underpin the FTSE 100 client work that followed.
Senior commercial leadership in print and communications. A period between two significant corporate environments that deepened Paul's experience of business development in complex, multi-stakeholder markets.
The period of Paul's career most directly associated with major commercial outcomes at the highest level. Working at Director level within Communisis GSP — the group's strategic partnerships division — he held responsibility for major account leadership across some of the United Kingdom's largest organisations, including:
Barclays Bank — retained a print services contract valued at £50 million per year under active competitive pressure. A relationship management and strategic account challenge requiring sustained commercial leadership at the most senior level of a major clearing bank over several years.
HSBC — delivered a new logo contract win worth £10.5 million, navigating a complex financial services procurement process against established incumbent competition.
Sainsbury's — developed a retail print and outsourcing partnership with one of the UK's largest supermarket groups, transitioning a transactional relationship into a strategic retained engagement.
Appointed as Business Development Director within one of the UK's largest outsourcing and professional services groups. In three years, built a qualified pipeline valued at £41.5 million across public sector and financial services clients. A period that deepened Paul's understanding of complex, multi-stakeholder BD processes at scale — and of how large organisations make, delay, and ultimately commit to major commercial decisions.
Fourteen years as a Principal Consultant, working with mid-market businesses across multiple sectors including manufacturing, professional services, construction, telecoms, and energy. An advisory career built one client relationship at a time, with sustained focus on commercial outcomes and long-term client retention. Recognised as Auditel Consultant of the Year in 2024.
NHA established as an independent retained advisory practice. One client per sector. No franchise structure. No commission arrangements. No conflicts of interest. Solely accountable to the businesses Paul works with.
NHA operates a retained advisory model. Paul works with one client per sector, per geography — which means that when he is retained by a business in a given sector, he takes no further engagement from a competitor in that space. The client has his full commercial focus, with no divided loyalties and no competing priorities.
All NHA engagements are delivered personally. There is no team, no junior resource, and no delegation. When a client engages NHA, they engage Paul Foster — the experience, the judgement, and the commercial relationships that come with 49 years of senior practice. That is the model and it does not vary.
NHA works from commercial intelligence. Before any strategy is recommended or any BD activity begins, Paul establishes a clear picture of where a client's revenue is actually coming from, where margin is being eroded, and where the highest-value growth opportunities sit. The decisions that follow are grounded in that intelligence — not in convention, not in generic frameworks, and not in what worked for a different business in a different market.
NHA charges a single retained fee. That is the only financial relationship between NHA and its clients.
Paul Foster does not accept introducer fees, referral commissions, supplier incentives, or any other payment from any third party in connection with work conducted for an NHA client. Not reduced fees. Not deferred arrangements. Not equity participation in lieu of fees. None of these things.
This is not a compliance position. It is an ethical one. The moment an adviser has a financial interest in a recommendation — however small, however well-intentioned — the client can no longer be certain that the advice they are receiving is entirely in their interest. NHA eliminates that uncertainty entirely.
Every client is told this at the outset. It never changes.
Mid-market businesses — those between £5 million and £500 million in revenue — have historically had two options when they need senior commercial leadership: hire it permanently at a cost that frequently cannot be justified, or bring in a consultant whose interests and the interests of other clients they serve may not always align with theirs.
NHA exists because neither of those options is adequate for the strategic commercial challenge that most growth-ready mid-market businesses actually face. A retained partner who brings FTSE 100-level commercial experience, works exclusively with one client per sector, and has no financial interest other than the success of that engagement — that is the gap NHA was built to fill.
After 49 years in senior commercial roles and 14 years of advisory practice, Paul founded NHA in April 2026 to do precisely that. With no franchise structure, no commission model, and no conflicts of any kind.
[Partner profile — to be added on completion of partnership agreement]
NHA is supported by a senior adviser who specialises in the design and implementation of verification management processes — the frameworks by which commercial data is gathered, traced, and substantiated to a standard that withstands independent scrutiny.
In a procurement environment where tender evaluators, supply chain auditors, and accreditation bodies increasingly require verifiable evidence behind every commercial claim, the ability to demonstrate chain of custody and continuous data integrity is a material competitive advantage. It is the difference between a claim that is made and a claim that is proved — and in competitive procurement, that difference is frequently the deciding factor.
His involvement in an NHA engagement is deployed where that capability directly strengthens a client's commercial position — making their data credible, their processes auditable, and their claims defensible under the most demanding scrutiny. Full details will be published in due course.
A 30-minute discovery call is the right place to start. No commitment, no sales process — a direct conversation about your commercial priorities.